The Art of the Flash Mob

The Art of Flash Mob

It’s summertime, which means the season for ice cream, late night bonfires, and jorts has finally begun. It’s also the perfect time to brush up on your dancing skills, because there is no better season (weather-wise, especially) to get together a flash mob and finally get in on the fun trend that’s been sweeping the globe. To point you in the right direction, we put together a few helpful tips and tricks to inspire and guide your way to creating the next YouTube sensation.

1. Keep it under wraps.

The only element that really matters in pulling off a successful flash mob is surprise. Be careful to stay off Facebook, Twitter, etc., when gathering together a crew for the mob, or else your carefully planned surprise could end up like this. Instead, keep an email group going, coordinate by phone, or spread the news by word of mouth. And, if you’re looking to join a flash mob on the scale of, say, the Grand Central Freeze, there’s always websites like meetup.com that will hook you up with a larger group of like-minded flash mobbers.

2. Choose the right song.

While flash mobs are fun to watch whether the audience knows the song or not, it’s always better if you can get onlookers to start (trying to) dance or sing along with you. Instead of choosing current chart-toppers, think more along the lines of songs that anyone from ages 5 to 95 can recognize. You know, the songs with lyrics that are just ingrained into us, even though we can’t pinpoint quite how they got there. Try “Don’t Stop Believin’,” by Journey, “Shout,” by The Isley Brothers, or anything by Michael Jackson.

3. Scout out the scene.

When location scouting, there’s a few things to keep in mind. What are the acoustics of the place like? How big is the space? You’ll want to keep the area proportionate to the number of flash mob members, because there’s nothing more embarrassing than trying to pull of a flash mob and people mistaking you for a couple of regular crazy people.

4. Keep it simple.

Remember: No matter how many times you killed it playing Dance Dance Revolution a couple years ago, that does not make you a professional dancer and/or choreographer. Keep the moves simple, lots of repetitive foot stomping and hand clapping should do the trick. For example, this would be fun if you have a couple of months to prepare, while this... well, it’s the thought that counts.

5. Catch it on video.

If there’s no visual proof, it might as well never have happened. Designate a person to film the mob, just in case no one from the audience is proactive enough to whip out a phone after just being caught by surprise. Afterwards, all bans on social media are off, so you can brag about your surprise attack in any way, shape, or form.

And now that you’ve got a few tips under your belt, there’s nothing stopping you from creating a great summer 2013 flash mob experience!